Vehicle interface having electromagnetic communications

ABSTRACT

A vehicle includes an interface having an electromagnetic transmitter and operable to receive tactile user input for control of a system of the vehicle. The vehicle includes a controller configured to modulate output having ultraviolet or infrared spectrum wavelength of the electromagnetic transmitter at a receiver capture rate to encode data into the output describing the control interface. The modulated output is responsive to a request.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to vehicle interfaces having electromagneticcommunications.

BACKGROUND

Vehicle interfaces enable occupant interaction with vehicle systems andcomponents. Expanding vehicle capabilities increase interface complexityand abundance, leaving occupants uncertain of vehicle interfacefunctions. Mobile devices may provide occupants with interfacedefinitions and functionality. Such methods, however, may requireambient light and proper orientation to provide interface definitionsand functionality.

SUMMARY

A vehicle includes an interface having an electromagnetic transmitterand is operable to receive tactile user input for control of a system ofthe vehicle. The vehicle includes a controller configured to modulateoutput having ultraviolet or infrared spectrum wavelength of theelectromagnetic transmitter at a receiver capture rate to encode datainto the output describing the control interface. The modulated outputis responsive to a request.

A method by a controller includes displaying, on a graphical userinterface, information related to a control interface based on anidentification of the control interface such that operation of thecontrol interface is disclosed. The display is responsive to receivingan electromagnetic output being modulated according to a capture rate ofa sensor having a wavelength within an ultraviolet or an infraredspectrum defining a data stream with the identification associated witha transmitter of the electromagnetic output.

A method by a controller includes displaying, on a graphical userinterface, information based on an identification of a control interfacerelated to a one of a plurality of electromagnetic outputs having agreatest intensity and such that operation of the control interface isdisclosed. The display being responsive to receiving a plurality ofelectromagnetic outputs modulated according to a capture rate of asensor having a wavelength within an ultraviolet or an infrared spectrumdefining a data stream with the identification of control interfaceassociated with respective transmitters of the electromagnetic outputs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a vehicle and associated interfaces;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an interface and a mobile device;

FIG. 3 is a graph of a rolling shutter and a received electromagneticsignal;

FIG. 4 is an algorithm for displaying interface information from anelectromagnetic transmitter;

FIG. 5 is an algorithm for sending an electromagnetic signal from atransmitter associated with a control interface; and

FIG. 6 is an algorithm for displaying interface information on a mobiledevice.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present disclosure are described herein. It is to beunderstood, however, that the disclosed embodiments are merely examplesand other embodiments may take various and alternative forms. Thefigures are not necessarily to scale; some features could be exaggeratedor minimized to show details of particular components. Therefore,specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not tobe interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis forteaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the presentinvention. As those of ordinary skill in the art will understand,various features illustrated and described with reference to any one ofthe figures may be combined with features illustrated in one or moreother figures to produce embodiments that are not explicitly illustratedor described. The combinations of features illustrated providerepresentative embodiments for typical applications. Variouscombinations and modifications of the features consistent with theteachings of this disclosure, however, could be desired for particularapplications or implementations.

Occupants interact with vehicle systems through vehicle interfaces. Anyvehicle type is contemplated through this disclosure. For example,vehicles may enable travel on land, sea, air, and space. Vehicles mayinclude automobiles, cars, trucks, boats, ships, planes, helicopters,drones, or remote controllers. An interface may enable any type ofhuman-machine interaction. For example, interfaces may be push buttons,pull buttons, knobs, dials, indicators, touchscreens, switches. Suchinterfaces may include electromagnetic transmitters. The electromagnetictransmitters may output modulated signals to be read by a sensor havinga rolling shutter. For example, a CMOS sensor of a mobile phone may havea rolling shutter. A rolling shutter may be a modular sensing apparatusof various types. That is, the rolling shutter may be arranged to senseby columns, rows, or other arbitrary segment to systematically orsequentially read electromagnetic signals received by the sensor to forma full frame of the camera. Indeed, electromagnetic communications fromeach interface may be read by a mobile phone of a vehicle occupant toprovide information relating to the functions and operation of theinterface.

Referring to FIG. 1, a vehicle 100, or portion thereof, is shown.Interfaces 102 may be disposed on the portion of the vehicle 100. Forexample, a steering wheel of a vehicle is shown having a plurality ofinterfaces 102. The interfaces 102 may provide any type of human-machineinteraction and are not limited to push buttons that provide tactileinput. For example, the interfaces 102 may be a touchscreen display orgraphical user interfaces therein. The interfaces 102 may be located onany portion of the vehicle including external or internal locations. Theinterfaces 102 may be located in the trunk or engine compartment.

The interfaces 102 may include electromagnetic transmitters 104. Theelectromagnetic transmitter 104 may emit any type of electromagneticoutput. The electromagnetic output may be within the ultraviolet orinfrared spectrum. For example, the electromagnetic output may be in thevisible light spectrum. Meaning, the electromagnetic transmitter may bea light-emitting diode (LED) as shown in FIG. 2. The electromagneticoutput may also be within the ultraviolet and infrared spectrum butunperceivable to the human eye. For example, the electromagnetic outputmay be outside of the visible light range but fall within theultraviolet and infrared spectrum. Such an implementation would allowcommunication between the transmitter 104 and the CMOS sensor withoutdistracting vehicle occupants.

Referring to FIG. 2, a schematic diagram of the interface 102 and amobile or nomadic device 120 is shown. The interface 102 includes anelectromagnetic transmitter 104. The electromagnetic transmitter 104 isshown as an LED but may be another type of transmitter. The transmitter104 is driven by a DC source 108 and a resistor 110. The transmitter 104is controlled by a controller 106. The controller is connected to aresistor 112 and a transistor 114 to control the flow of current throughthe transmitter 104. The output of the transmitter 104 may be modulatedto indicate digital information and the digital information may beencoded according to known methods. The output of the transmitter 104may be modulated according to the rolling shutter rate or speed of theCMOS sensor 126 of the mobile device. For example, the modulation timingmay be synchronized with the rolling shutter speed—e.g., receivingcapture rate—of the CMOS sensor 126.

As shown in a simplified diagram, the rolling shutter of the CMOS sensor126 is operated by a controller 124 to read each sensing segment ortransistor of the CMOS sensor 126 systematically. For example, thecontroller 124 may sequentially take readings from the sensors 126 at 1μs intervals 302 as shown in FIG. 3.

The sequential readings may be subsequently stitched together forming afull picture frame. The modulation rate of the modulated output 304 ofthe transmitter 104 is matched to the rolling shutter rate or receivercapture rate of the collective CMOS sensor 126. As shown in FIG. 4 theinformation received by the controller 124 of the mobile device 120 isused to display reference materials related to the interface 102 tooccupants of the vehicle. The mobile device 120 may request furtherinformation from servers or database infrastructure outside of themobile device 120. The mobile device 120 may have a datastore or otherdatabase stored in local memory for retrieval. The reference materialson the display 122 may include diagrams, text, pictures, videos, orother information to assist occupants with the use of each interface 102or vehicle systems. Additionally, the entire received image from theCMOS sensor 126 may be stitched together and displayed on the mobiledevice display 122. Indeed, a captured image of the interface 102 mayalso include identification or reference materials related to theinterface 102 without requiring object recognition of the image.

Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG. 3 depicts a graph 300 having amodulated output 304 and a rolling shutter 302 reading such output atpredetermined intervals. The modulated output may be a digital outputhaving a Manchester encoding and an ON-OFF keyed modulation scheme.

FIG. 4 shows a communications algorithm 400 for generating the modulatedoutput 304 and reading information therein. Controller 106 operations402 are shown alongside controller 124 operations 420. Data 404associated with the interface may be embedded in any type of memoryready by or included with the controller 106. The controller 106 readsdata and converts it to binary in step 406. The binary data 406 isencoded by the controller 106. The encoding may be any known in the art(e.g., Manchester).

In some circumstances the encoded data may be multiplexed 410 toincrease communication rates or improve reliability. The multiplexing410 may include associating portions of the encoding 408 with colors orwavelengths of a cluster of transmitters 104. For example, multipletransmitters 104 may be configured to transmit within predeterminedwavelengths. The combination of received colors along a column, row, orarbitrary segment of CMOS sensor 126 may provide increase bandwidth ordata validation. That is, a column of CMOS sensors falling within anindividual frame of the rolling shutter may detect a plurality ofdistinct wavelengths or colors related to distinct data streams. Aftermultiplexing, the controller 106 modulates output of the transmitter 104or plurality of transmitters 104 according to the receive capture rateor rolling shutter of the CMOS sensor 126. The modulation type may beON-OFF keyed (OOK).

The output 304 is received and processed by the controller 124 and CMOSsensor 126 according to a rolling shutter of the CMOS sensor 126 suchthat the CMOS camera sensor 422 collects the modulated signal. A rollingshutter 302 is defined as systematically reading any arbitrary segmentof CMOS sensor 126. For example, a column-based rolling shutter may readCMOS pixels aligned in columns of the frame from left to right. Arow-based rolling shutter may read CMOS pixels aligned in rows of theframe from top to bottom. Any other systematic selection of pixels maybe used.

The modulated output 304 is demodulated by virtue of the rolling shutter424. That is, the synchronization of the rolling shutter to themodulation frequency enables accurate transmission of data by detectingdigital electromagnetic or light values as each segment of the CMOSsensor 126 is read. As such, each segment of the CMOS sensor 126 mayprovide data in spite of the entire image frame being unread.

After receipt of the demodulated data via the rolling shutter 302, thedata may be demultiplexed by recognition of particular light orelectromagnetic values received. That is, if coloration of the pixels isused to provide multiplexing, data streams may be identified bycolorations or wavelengths. Additionally, where the CMOS sensor couldalso detect multiple pixels in the segment having the same wavelength orcolor, the CMOS may use values from pixels having the highest intensityor magnitude. That is, with all other factors being equal, thecontroller 124 may associate the desired data stream with a particularsection of the CMOS segment being read such that the most intense orsection having the highest magnitude is used. For example, if a columnarCMOS segment of the rolling shutter is read, a top section may have ahigher magnitude (e.g., average value value) of light than a bottomsection of the segment. As such, the controller 124 would read the datastream from the top section of the segment for the remainder of theframe of picture taking period to ensure that demultiplexed data wasfrom the same source transmitter 104 if multiple transmitters 104 aredetected.

The received data is decoded 428 according to the encoding specifiedabove. The controller 124 may then obtain information according to thedata or display the data itself on a display 122 of the mobile device120. The controller 124 may send the data offboard the mobile device toobtain the information. Further, the controller 124 may send the data tothe vehicle 100 for a response. Meaning, the vehicle itself containsinformation related to the interfaces 102 and can provide information tothe mobile device 120 upon presentation of an identifier in the data orother information. Further, the vehicle 100 may convey the informationon a visual or audio interface at the request of the mobile device. Themobile device 120 may convey the information visually or aurally in step432. A vehicle interface 102 may communicate with a CMOS camera sensor126 of a mobile device 120 through a rolling shutter of the CMOS camerasensor 126 to provide directionally-based information requests fromoccupants of the vehicle.

Referring to FIG. 5, an algorithm 500 for modulating an output is shown.The algorithm starts in step 502. It should be appreciated that anyalgorithms disclosed herein may be implemented with steps omitted oroccurring in a different sequence than shown. The algorithms maycontinuously repeat or sporadically stop. In step 504, the controller106 receives a communications request. A vehicle operation may initiatea communications request. For example, an engine start or system startupsequence may initiate the request so that all interfaces having suchcapabilities attempt to communicate. Meaning, the powering of additionaldevices may initiate the request. The request may be initiated based ona mobile device request. For example, a digital communicationsconnection between the mobile device 120 and the vehicle 100 may enablethe mobile device operator to request all of the interfaces to starttransmitting. An application on the mobile device 120 may allow theoperator to initiate the request. The request may be cryptographicallysigned for authenticity.

In step 506, the controller 106 modulates the transmitter 104 output atthe receiver capture rate. The receiver capture rate may be communicatedfrom the mobile device 120 prior to transmission or be predefined. Themodulation may ensure that the data send rate is the same as the rollingshutter rate, as shown in FIG. 3. In step 508, the controller 106 mayreceive indication from the mobile device 120 that information wasproperly received or an indication that it was not. If information wasnot received, the mobile device 120 may update and send a receivercapture rate to the controller 106 or the controller 106 may incrementor decrement the modulation frequency to try communications again instep 510. In step 512, the controller 106 may stop output of thetransmitter 104. In step 514, the algorithm 500 may end or repeat.

Referring to FIG. 6, an algorithm 600 is shown. The algorithm 600 startsin step 602. In step 604, the controller 124 determines whether multipletransmitter 104 outputs were received based on the intensity of signalsand clustering of the signal magnitude according to the segment of theCMOS sensor 126 being read during the rolling shutter of the frame. Thesection of the segment of the CMOS sensor 126 is selected in step 606and used for further communications. In a similar way sections of thesegment may be selected to identify multiplexing or other technology. Instep 608, the output is demodulated by the controller 124 according tothe rolling shutter of the CMOS sensor such that data is received by thecontroller 124. The data may be stored in local memory to be sentoffboard. The output signal may be decoded in step 610. In step 612, aninformation request may be sent to a server or data repository on themobile device 120, vehicle 100, or at another location to provideinformation to the operator. If information is obtained and available instep 614, the information is displayed for the operator in step 618. Theinformation may be displayed on a display 122 of the mobile device 120,another display associated with the vehicle 100, or a separate display.If information is not available in step 614, the controller 124 may sendan additional request for output 616 with updated data rates orinformation to properly identify the interface or provide informationabout the interface. It should be appreciated that any type of data maybe communicated. The data communicated may merely identify theinterface. The data communicated may otherwise provide any or all of theinformation related to that interface including maintenanceinstructions, operation instructions, definitional information,instructional information, or any other information related to theinterface.

The processes, methods, logic, or strategies disclosed may bedeliverable to and/or implemented by a processing device, controller, orcomputer, which may include any existing programmable electronic controlunit or dedicated electronic control unit. Similarly, the processes,methods, logic, or strategies may be stored as data and instructionsexecutable by a controller or computer in many forms including, but notlimited to, information permanently stored on various types of articlesof manufacture that may include persistent non-writable storage mediasuch as ROM devices, as well as information alterably stored onwriteable storage media such as floppy disks, magnetic tapes, CDs, RAMdevices, and other magnetic and optical media. The processes, methods,logic, or strategies may also be implemented in a software executableobject. Alternatively, they may be embodied in whole or in part usingsuitable hardware components, such as Application Specific IntegratedCircuits (ASICs), Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), statemachines, controllers or other hardware components or devices, or acombination of hardware, software and firmware components.

The words used in the specification are words of description rather thanlimitation, and it is understood that various changes may be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Aspreviously described, the features of various embodiments may becombined to form further embodiments of the invention that may not beexplicitly described or illustrated. While various embodiments couldhave been described as providing advantages or being preferred overother embodiments or prior art implementations with respect to one ormore desired characteristics, those of ordinary skill in the artrecognize that one or more features or characteristics may becompromised to achieve desired overall system attributes, which dependon the specific application and implementation. These attributes mayinclude, but are not limited to cost, strength, durability, life cyclecost, marketability, appearance, packaging, size, serviceability,weight, manufacturability, ease of assembly, etc. As such, embodimentsdescribed as less desirable than other embodiments or prior artimplementations with respect to one or more characteristics are notoutside the scope of the disclosure and may be desirable for particularapplications.

What is claimed is:
 1. A vehicle comprising: a vehicle interfaceincluding an electromagnetic transmitter and operable to receive tactileuser input for control of a system of the vehicle; and a controllerconfigured to, receive, via a digital connection, a communicationrequest and a receiver capture rate from a nomadic device, responsive tothe communication request, modulate output at the electromagnetictransmitter having ultraviolet or infrared spectrum wavelength at thereceiver capture rate, encode the output into data corresponding to theelectromagnetic transmitter of the interface, wherein the controllermodulates the output to multiplex the data such that a plurality of datastreams are transmitted by the transmitter and wherein the plurality ofdata streams have different wavelengths, and wherein the receivercapture rate is a speed of a rolling shutter of a sensor configured toreceive the output, and responsive to receiving indication from thenomadic device that information was not properly received, obtain anupdated receiver capture rate from the nomadic device via the digitalconnection, and adjust the modulation using the updated receiver capturerate.
 2. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the interface is a button. 3.The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the interface is a touchscreen.
 4. Thevehicle of claim 1, wherein the request is initiated by an engine startor system startup routine.
 5. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the outputis outside of a visible light spectrum.
 6. A method for a mobile devicecomprising: by a controller, sending a capture rate of a sensor definedby the mobile device to a vehicle via a digital connection, receiving anelectromagnetic output being modulated according to the capture rate ofthe sensor, the electromagnetic output having a wavelength within anultraviolet or an infrared spectrum, demodulating the electromagneticoutput according to a rolling shutter of a sensor of a nomadic device,identifying a data stream with identification of a control interfaceassociated with a transmitter of the electromagnetic output based on therolling shutter, wherein the controller modulates the output tomultiplex the data stream such that a plurality of data streams aretransmitted by a transmitter and wherein the plurality of data streamshave different wavelengths, displaying, on a graphical user interface,information related to the control interface based on the identificationsuch that operation of the control interface is presented, andresponsive to detecting that information was not properly received,updating and sending an updated receiver capture rate to the vehicle. 7.The method of claim 6, wherein the sensor includes complementarymetal-oxide-semiconductors.
 8. The method of claim 6 further comprising,demultiplexing the electromagnetic output according to wavelength-bands.9. The method of claim 6 further comprising, responsive to receiving aplurality of electromagnetic outputs having wavelengths within anultraviolet or an infrared spectrum, selecting the electromagneticoutputs having the highest intensity of the electromagnetic outputs suchthat only information associated with the one is displayed.
 10. Themethod of claim 6 further comprising, capturing image frames using thesensor while receiving the electromagnetic outputs; stitching the imageframes together to generate an image representative of the controlinterface associated with a transmitter from which the electromagneticoutput is received; and displaying the image on the graphical userinterface.